Means for supporting railway-rails.



A. L. STEVENS. MEANS FOR SUPPORTING RAILWAY RAILS. APPLICATION FILED MAY 10, 1913.

1,106,42 1. Patented Aug. 11, 1914.

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APPLICATION FILED MAY 10, 1913. 1 ,1Q6,42 1 Patented Aug. 11, 1914.

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ALFRED L; STEVENS, OF CHICAGO,

ILLINOIS.

MEANS FDR SUPPORTING RAILWAY-RAILS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 11, 1914:.

Application filed May 10, 1913. Serial No. 786,670.

To all whom it may concern."

Be it known that I, ALFRED L. STEVENS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new anduseful Improvements in Means for Supporting Railway-Rails, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in means for supporting railway rails.

Some of the objects of my invention are to provide simple, eflicient, durable and relatively inexpensive means for supporting the meeting ends of, railway rails, to preserve constant the relative gage distance or separation of the rails and to maintain in proper,

horizontal alinement the tread surfaces thereof.

Other and further objects of my invention will become readily apparent to persons skilled in the art, from a consideration of the following description when taken in connection with the drawings wherein Figure l is a plan view of a section of railway track built by use of my rail supports. Fig. 2 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken on line 2-2 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken on line 33 of Fig. 2.

In all the views the same reference characters are employed to indicate similar parts.

It-has heretofore been the prevalent custom, in railway track construction to use cross-ties of substantially uniform size, or of substantially equal load supporting area along all parts of the track. These ties are usually of insufficient width, properly to take care of the imposed loads, especially at the meeting ends of the rails, the weakest parts of said road structure. To strengthen the rails at their meeting ends the use of splice bars, held together by splice bolts, taking through said bars and the Webs of the rails, have been resorted to in an effort to strengthen these weaker parts, to maintain the track in alinement and uniformly unyielding. large part of the load splice bars and the bolts. The imposed loads at these points produce stretching or elongation of the splice bolts and Lmdue wear upon the contacting edges of the splice bars, resulting in loosening of the nuts and general inefliciency of such joints. The unceasing vigilance and inspection necessary to to be carried by the Such expedicnce necessitates a maintain the nuts tight upon the bolts, at all of the joints, in order that such joints may not become a menace to the safety of the moving trains along the tracks is too well recognized to require further comment. It is to overcome these objections and frailties of track construction for which my pres ent invention was designed.

If the rails be properly and suiliciently supported at their meeting ends, so that they will remain uniformly in horizontal alinement, during the passing of the loads thereover, it will not be necessary to reinforce the rails at their meeting ends with splice bars, bolts and such other contrivances. Proper devices, however, should. be provided to maintain the gage; to take the lateral thrust at curves; to preventcreeping, and to provide 'sufiicient bearing surface between the rails and cross ties.

In connection. with proper and suiiicient support for the rails at their meeting ends, consisting of a tie and an extended sub-base therefor, substantially as disclosed in my Patent N 0. 1,060,373, dated April 29, 1913, I provide a specialrail fitting including in one device, all of the features above enumerated.

In the construction of a track for rail way purposes, I prefer to place one of my large sub-base ties 10, having a supporting area substantially equal to 3 or more of the ordinary ties, immediately under the meet ing ends of adjoining rails 1112 and 1112 as shown in Fig. 1, and intermediate these sub-base ties, I place the usual ties 14, as they are employed in ordinary track construction. By this means I have a very large weight supporting area immediately below the joints of the rails which is capable of supporting the rails in perfect alinement during the time when the loads, such as heavy railroad trains are passing over the joints. Ifthere be no vertical deflection at the joints of the meeting rails it will be unnecessary to apply supports in the nature of splice bars, fish plates or the like to take and maintain the imposed burden, as the enlarged cross ties or sub-bases 10, will distribute the weight over such a large area as to render this portion of the track stanch and vertically stable. Upon the sub-base 10 are placed the ordinary, preferably Wooden, cross ties, 15, between the flanges 16 and 17 and I retain the ties 15 in place by means of bolts 18, to prevent longitudinal displacement of the tie reference to the sub-base.

At the meeting ends of the rails, and immediately superposed above the tie 15, are

placed the fittings 19. The portion 20 con stituting the rail brace is preferably placed upon the outside. of the track. This fitting or chair is, preferably, of width equal to the width of the tie and is provided with integral projecting studs 21 to project into or through the usual perforations or orifice 1n the webs at the ends of the rails. The part constitutes a rail brace, and being placed -on the outside of the rail, it is adapted to 15 take the thrust due to the shifting of the load 1n going around curves, the stress being impressed upon the rails by the flanges 22 offifthe wheels 23; The studs 21 prevent I. creeping of the rails and have a tendency to 20 maintain them in their proper positlons on .the ties The part 2a comprises the tie plate, or base, for distributing the weight from the rail upon the upper surface of the tie, and

while I have shown the part 2a to extend onlymidway under the rail, it is within the 3 rail, and in the illustration shown in Fig. 3,

the parts, consisting of the rail brace 20 and the studs 2l21 are not included, in the fitting 25, as a rail brace, located on the inside' ofwthe rail,"would in most cases be 5 'supe o'us orunnecessary.

l in venti'on, however, contemplates-the ofj-t-wo devices, 19, one upon either side ofthe rails at the same joint in which event "-tlief.,studs 21-21 from each fitting would i'eX'tend only half way through the web 12 'oftheirails instead of extending entirely through the webs as shown in Fig. 3, The

fitting'25 mayunderlie a portion of the. base of the rail, and'ov'erlie a portion, as shown,

to an extent desired. The 'rail is held in vertical position; by the cofcip eration of the fitting 25 and the rail'brace, 20 to withstand the lateral thrust that may be imparted to the inner sideof the rail surface. I prefer 5 to hold the fittings 19 and 25 on the tie 15 by means of threaded lag screws 26, that f are threaded into the ties 15.

The perforations in the parts 19 and 25 for the screws are sufiiciently large to permit considerable latitude of movement thereof,with respect to screws 26, so that any expansion of theparts 19 and 25 will not operate, through the instrumentality of the screws, to split the ties. I

I have made the surfaces 19 and 25 of the respective devices flat, as shown, so that inthe event that the wheels 23 should leave the track the flanges will have a flat surface upon which to run, without tearing off the heads of the bolts 26, which would occur if these. surfaces were angular. j j

t The rail supporting structure, 19, may be used quite independently of thesub-base 10 but the results that would follow would not be so satisfactory. It is also evident that other means for extending the bearing area immediately under the joints may beemplo-yed than that shown and used in conjunction with my rail brace support 19 butthe best results may be obtained by using the device as illustrated in the drawings.

Having described my invention what I claim, with a view and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

A'rail supportflfor the meeting ends of rigidly supported railway rails, comprising a tie plate base portion, to underlie the rails; an angular brace portion, extending upoffset from contact with the web of the rail; laterally extending studs, integral with the thereof and adapted to engage the usual ori-' fices provided the webs of the rails, said. brace portion at its longltudinal center adj acent the juncture of the rails being transtions of the rails to the tie upon the side opposite to that upon which said fitting is placed.

hand in the presence of two witnesses.

ALFRED L. STEVENS.

\ In the presence of- Fomin BAIN,

Liter :F, ALLEN.

wardly from the plate, having on its upper of the brace between the two beads being brace projecting from the ofiset portion versely enlarged and pocketed at its inner face; and means, for securing the edge por In testimony whereof I hereunto set my 2 Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the f Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C. 

